Breast Cancer Treatment in the Elderly

More people are surviving to old age than ever before. In the elderly, cancer is a quite common occurrence; only the circulatory diseases are seen more frequently. One type of cancer, breast cancer, frequently occurs in elderly women. Currently, there is some controversy over how the elderly breast cancer patient should be managed.

In the next several decades, the number of older persons in the United States is expected to double in size (7:2507). By the year 2030, over 65 million Americans, or one in five, will be 65 years of age or older. Furthermore, even within this population of seniors, significant ageshifts will occur. In general, the old will become older: by the year 2000, almost 48% of the elderly will be over 75 years of age. It is within this group that cancer strikes most often. In 1991, an estimated 7 million new cases were diagnosed. Fiftyfive percent of these malignancies occurred in people over the age of 65 (7:2502, 2507). Such circumstances make it imperative that the association between cancer therapies and advanced age be firmly delineated (3:2358).

In elderly women, the most common malignancy is cancer of the breast. It is estimated that as many as one out of eight women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime (5:107). Of this population, the tumor will be fatal in about thirty percent. Moreover, as a woman's age increases, the probability that she will develop breast cancer also increa

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t cancer to death was observed to be 5 months. Moreover, 60% of the patients had simultaneous distant metastases to multiple sites. Such metastatic "showers" can have rapid and devastating consequences for any cancer patient. Lastly, Mueller et al. (1978) did note that the rate of dying is significantly slower in the younger breast cancer groups (3:2363). They concluded though that the apparent increase in lethality among the elderly may be due to other factors (i.e., their relative survival rates, etc.). The researchers even went so far as to suggest that perhaps the data indicate that more aggressive, rather than less aggressive strategies, are appropriate for older patients early in the course of their disease. A third presumption with regard to breast cancer is that elderly patients have a limited life expectancy due to "comorbid conditions" (5:108). It is true that the elderly are more likely to have both chronic disease, as well as altered levels of physiologic and physical functioning. The conditions most frequently observed in these patients include arthritis, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease (5:109). The presence of such problems may make medical professionals overly cautious. Ultimately, this
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1936
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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